Net Zero Business Models

16EPILOGUE: TOWARD A NET ZERO CIVILIZATION

“Love Your Home.”¹

—Title of Ørsted video

Achieving a net zero economy is predicated upon the convergence of the energy transformation and the digital transformation that will support the infrastructure of the net zero economy. Smart cars, smart homes, smart buildings, and a smart planet using artificial intelligence and data analytics will enable eco‐efficiency processes and systems at scale by empowering everyone to intelligently monitor and manage their energy usage.

THE SHIFT TO STAKEHOLDER CAPITALISM

These two transformational societal trends are converging with a third trend to transform the theoretical basis of capitalism from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism. There is growing acknowledgement that capitalism as we know it is broken, as evidenced by climate change. Marc Benioff, the CEO and founder of Salesforce, declared in a New York Times editorial “… as a capitalist, I believe it's time to say out loud what we all know to be true: Capitalism, as we know it, is dead.”² Mr. Benioff was also one of 181 public company CEOs who signed a Business Roundtable letter advocating a shift to stakeholder capitalism.³

The World Economic Forum also has advocated a shift to stakeholder capitalism, “a form of capitalism in which companies do not only optimize short‐term profits for shareholders, but seek long term value creation, by taking into account the needs of all their stakeholders, and society at large.”⁴ Stakeholder ...